A few months back, I received an email offering me the opportunity to become a 2018 “Cheeselandia” hostess. Naturally, I applied and was thrilled to be chosen as one of the nationwide “Cheese Influencers” to host a party. The Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin (previously known as the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board – I like the new name better… just sayin…) sponsored the event. Part of the “deal” including posting three updates about our event on Instagram. Writing this article was solely my decision to showcase these fine cheeses one more time. I received no monetary compensation for hosting or writing about the event.
I partnered with Blue Haven Bee Company and Southern Origin Meadery to host twelve cheese lovers who joined us for the event. I conducted a “Cheese 101” class to educate our guests about the cheeses we served.
The crack teams at Cheeselandia and The Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin supplied everything needed to wow and thrill our guests: five Wisconsin Artisan Cheeses, crackers, a gorgeous Boska cheeseboard, cheese knives and other cheesy, good stuff. Although, I did add a few other cheeses and goodies to enhance the flavors of the cheeses.
The five cheeses featured at our event were some of the creme de la creme of Wisconsin cheeses:
Pleasant Ridge Reserve from Uplands Cheese Company: Like the alpage versions of Beaufort and Gruyere, this Alpine-style cheese is made by Andy Hatch and his team only during the summer months when his herd can graze outdoors. PRR is the only cheese to win Best of Show three times at the annual American Cheese Society’s Competition. Sweet and nutty, this raw milk cheese never disappoints… never…
Black Pepper BellaVitano from Sartori Cheese: This is one of the Award-Winning BellaVitanos produced at the Antigo plant in Northern Wisconsin. I had the privilege 
of attending a cheese “make” there in 2013. The Wisconsin Master Cheesemakers and team let me participate from adding the starter to the milk to loading the hoops with curd, flipping the wheels in the brine to rubbing the wheels with the finish (the day I was there, we rubbed the Bella with Chai). In an interview with Jim Sartori, SG learned there is something magical about the Antigo plant which prior to Prohibition was a brewery. It seems the flora growing in the walls of this almost-century old plant adds complexity to the flavor profile. Jim told Spaulding Gray he had tried “duplicating” the cheeses at other plants and they just don’t turn out the same. You can read SG’s entire interview with Jim Sartori here. In 2009, I tasted my first Bella and it was love at first bite (and one of them coincidentally was the Black Pepper…)
Next on the tasting board was Marieke‘s Gouda Foenegreek. Fenugreek is a plant which produces both leaves and seeds used in cooking and in some cultures it is considered to have medicinal benefits. Marieke uses the seeds to add a nutty, maple flavor to her raw milk gouda. The first time I “saw” Marieke Penterman, she was dancing across the stage at the 2013 ACS Competition Award’s Show in Madison. The audience got to see a lot of her dance moves that night as she picked up a boat load of awards. Spaulding Grey had the honor of interviewing Marieke and you can read the entire interview here.
Food trivia: If called an herb, it is made from leaves; if called spice, it is made from seeds of the plant.)
Widmer’s Cellars provided the fourth cheese of the evening: Joe’s 4-Year Cheddar; a “sharp”**
cheddar that according to our poker buddy, Gavin, so sharp “it’ll take the back of your head off”. While that might be a bit of an exaggeration, this is a full-flavored, robust cheddar. One that would pair perfectly with a sweet, ripe apple. Joe and the fine cheesemaking team at Widmer’s is famous for being one of the few making the American Original, Brick Cheese.
Trivia: Brick Cheese was first made in Wisconsin in 1877 by Cheesemaker John Jossi.
The final cheese on the Cheeselandia board came from Roth Cheese: their Buttermilk Blue. Made from the raw milk of Jersey and Holstein cows and aged a minimum of sixty days as required by the FDA. Although this cheese has a tang, it is still mild enough to be considered by Liz Thorpe as a “gateway cheese”. Perfect as a snacker, this blue is also an excellent choice for making dressing at home.
From the cheeses donated for the American Cheese Month events, I had three Wisconsin cheeses and added them to the evening’s festivities: LaClare Family Creamery‘s Chandoka, a New Zealand-style cheddar, La Bottegi’s de BelGioioso‘s Artigiano Aged Balsamic and Cipollini Onion and Sartori’s Montamore.
Montamore is a cheddar with parmesan notes that might make you wonder if it’s a cheddar that tastes like parm or a
parm that tastes like cheddar. Either way, it’s a terrific snacking cheese that fit well into this cheese tasting.
BelGioioso’s La Bottega line of cheeses showcases Italian “upscale” cheeses and their proprietary Artigiano is certainly a cheese that deserves showcasing. You’ll find some of those crunchy crystals that add both flavor and texture. In this cheese, those crystals are calcium lactate crystals, the sign of a fine-aged cheese. The tangy aged balsamic and the sweet cipollini onions rubbed on the rind make this cheese irresistible.
Chandoka is made with a blend of raw goat and cow milks and according to the producer is produced in the style of New
Zealand cheddars. While the tangy notes of the goat milk are there, they are subtle. Many of you out there may think you don’t like goat milk cheese; I was once one of those folks. My early memories of goat milk cheese are of a barn-yard flavor that tasted like what I might think the same if you licked a goat’s butt. Good lord, what a mental image; one you can’t erase similar to the one I once heard about Roseanne and Sam Kinison… but I digress…
That unpleasant aftertaste comes from buying goat milk cheese from a local farm before the farmer learned that to avoid that taste, he needed to keep the bucks away from the milking parlor. When the does are too close to the bucks they produce an enzyme that creates that pungent, too often, disgusting flavor profile. Today, if you visit a goat farm, you’ll find the bucks in the back pasture away from the does; only allowed to visit when the does are in heat.
Along with these fine cheeses, I added Divina Fig Spread, Kelly’s Jelly’s Habanero, 34 Degrees Crisps, Olli Salumeria Salami, Blue Haven Honey, Chocolate Truffles and Honey-roasted nuts which I made using Georgia pecans, almond slivers and macadamia nuts. and Blue Haven Wildflower Honey. The Fig Spread and the Chocolate Truffles were provided by Gourmet Foods International as part of the October American Cheese Month events I hosted as were Kelly’s Jelly, 34 Degrees Crisps and Olli Salumeria Salami. Their generosity is greatly appreciated!!
In addition to being an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional, I am a Certified ServSafe Food Production Manager with certifications that also include ServSafe Certified Instructor and Proctor. I am available for cheese events, cheese program development, cheese training, food safety training and 3rd party food safety auditing. See my About Me and Resume pages for more details or call me at 360 921 9908 to discuss availability.
** “Sharp” – Some elite cheese nerds do not consider “sharp” a proper flavor profile descriptor. But almost anyone who has ever eaten an aged Cheddar knows exactly what the term means.
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